Slow Dance
by The Smoose
Summary: Tony Stark didn't fall in love very often, but when he did, he fell hard. Pepperony, despite the beginning.


Just a little thing that popped into my head whilst I was watching 'I Love You, Philip Morris' for the first time the other week. After laughing myself silly and cringing at Jim Carrey kissing Ewan McGregor, I found one scene beat me around the head repeatedly until I wrote this down. I swear, despite the beginning, it's Pepperony.

P.S. Once more, I know nothing about medicine.

* * *

Tony Stark didn't fall in love very often, but when he did, he fell hard.

Her name was Jessica Wentworth, she was 5'8", brunette with startling green eyes, worked as a curator for the Sundaram Tagore Gallery in Beverly Hills and she breezed into his life at approximately 7:00pm on the 14th of February 1996. To say he was blindsided would be an understatement. They'd been introduced by Obadiah at some Valentine's Day charity event and Tony was immediately baffled by the fact that his Stark charm seemed to have no effect on her. He tried to strike up conversation with her not once, but five times during the course of the evening, each time being left with the view of the back of her head as she turned to someone she deemed more interesting.

This intrigued him. He wasn't used to being less interesting that someone else. So he did what anyone else in his position would do. He stalked her. Well, maybe stalking was a bit of a strong word for what he was doing, but he certainly ended up at a lot of the same places she did. Charity events, business parties…the gallery she worked at.

Yeah, he was pretty much stalking her, and yet he still had nothing to show for it. He's sent her gifts, donated paintings to her gallery, _bought_ paintings from her gallery. Finally, after four months and a good chunk of his fortune spent just vying for her attention, he got a date out of her. He took her to a fancy restaurant, he took her dancing, and he even took her for a drive up to the Santa Monica Mountains. When she barely even batted an eyelid at his efforts, he called her on it, and in return, she called him on how much of a spoilt, show-off, asshat he was being, and if he really wanted to impress her he needed to tone down the 'LOOK AT ME!' attitude and be himself.

Well, that shut him up.

He took her home and walked her to her door. Before she closed it on him, he babbled an apology, which she managed to stop with a kiss. He was pretty much smitten after that. Date after date passed and Tony found himself feeling more comfortable with just being _himself_ than he had in years. He found he could easily talk to Jessica about anything and everything, and she wasn't afraid to take him down a peg or two if the situation called for it. They were inseparable and after merely six months, he asked her to move in with him.

But their happiness was blighted a year later when a very small 'nothing' turned into blood counts and CT scans, until finally Jessica was diagnosed with Leukaemia.

Tony was grief stricken. He went with her to hospital throughout her radiotherapy treatments and barely left the house when she came home, but her condition deteriorated quickly and she was forced to take up permanent residence in the hospital. Tony managed to get himself a bed in her room and Obadiah took over running the company for the duration. For three months he became part of the furniture in the hospital, getting to know the doctors and nurses on a first name basis.

In early July 1998 , Jessica contracted pneumonia and had to have an oxygen tank with her at all times. She was very weak and was asleep for most of the day. She woke one evening to find Tony asleep, bent over her bed with his head on his hands. She smiled sadly and shakily raised a hand to run it through his hair. He stirred and blinked sleepily before realising she was awake and jerking his head up.

"Jess, hey, you want me to get the doctor?" he was halfway to the door before she managed to croak out a no. "You ok?" he asked.

She reached for her oxygen mask and took a shuddering breath. "I need you to do something for me." She said softly when she removed the mask.

"Anything, babe." Tony whispered, taking her hand and pressing his lips to it.

Jessica smiled again. "Ok, I need you to shut up and listen, because this is taking a lot out of me." She said. At Tony's nod, she continued. "I'm dying, Tony, and I need to know that you'll be ok when I'm gone."

"Hey, no, you're gonna get better-"

"Stark, what did I just say about shutting up?" she said with a little more force. "I need you to move on when I'm gone, ok? I don't want you to waste your life grieving over me."

Tony's eyes bugged out. "How can you ask me that Jess? You're the love of my life."

"No, I'm not." She argued.

"What?" Tony couldn't believe his ears. "Jess, I've never been in love before. You're it."

"No, I'm not." She said again. "But I know her." She took another breath through her mask.

"Jess, I don't-"

"Listen, you're going to meet someone," Jess said. "Someone great, ok?" she smiled and a tear slipped from her eye. "She's going to love you as much as I do, she'll be your best friend, and she's gonna stick by you through all the crap you manage to dump on yourself and her. She'll call you on all the shitty choices you make, she'll make you happier than you ever thought you could be, and you better do the same for her, you hear me Tony?" her voice cracked and she took another breath from the mask. "Don't you dare lose her." The monitor by her bedside indicated her heart rate was accelerating.

"I won't, Jess, ok? You gotta calm down." Tony said, blinking away tears. "You're gonna be fine babe. You're gonna get better and then we can go home, ok?" he wiped her tears away. "I love you."

"I-I love-" Jessica gasped and struggled for breath and the monitors started beeping madly.

"Jess?" Tony stood up, panicking. "Jessica! Hey, someone get a doctor in here!" he yelled out the door.

A nurse rushed into the room and immediately called for a doctor and a crash cart. Tony pressed himself against the wall as a team of medical staff sped into the room and started up the defibrillator. They tried for several minutes to revive Jessica when she slipped into cardiac arrest, but after fruitless attempts to get her heart started again, he regretfully gave up. He registered her time of death and apologised to Tony, who was still standing against the wall.

Standing up straight, Tony walked over to the bed and reclaimed his seat next to it, taking Jessica's hand in his and pressing his lips to her still warm fingers.

"I love you, Jess." He whispered.

* * *

_Ten years later_

"Oh my God, I can't take this anymore-" Pepper whined.

"You can't?" Tony asked incredulously.

"I can't take this-"

"What do you – look at me!" he gestured at his battered armour and still fizzing helmet.

"My body literally cannot handle the stress! I never know if you're gonna kill yourself or...or...or wreck the whole company-"

"I think I did ok." He gestured again to the smoking wreckage of what used to be the Expo. Maybe not the best imagery to go with that sentence, but whatever.

"I quit," Pepper continued. "I'm resigning." She took a deep breath. "That's it."

"What did you just say?" Tony asked. "You're done?" he stepped closer to her, his mind working overtime. "Surprising...well, no, it's not surprising. I get it." He surveyed the damage he's helped cause and he really did get it. She'd stood by him all these years, through all the crap he'd heaved on himself and therefore her. It was inevitable that one day he's push her too much. "You don't have to make any excuses."

"I'm not making any excuses." She argued, taking a step closer to him and meeting him in the middle.

"Well you actually were just making excuses-"

"No I wasn't making an excuse-" she cut him off again.

"-but you don't have to, listen-"

"-because I'm actually very justified-"

"-hey, hey, hey, you deserve better." He grabbed her hand, this seemed to stop her talking.

"Well..."

"You've taken such good care of me. I've been in a tough spot and you got me through it, so...right?" How could he really be letting her go this easily? After all these years he was just going to let her leave him?

"Thank you." Pepper said quietly.

"Yeah..."

"Thank you for understanding-"

"Yeah, yeah, let's talk, uh, let's talk clean-up." So this was really it, he wasn't going to fight for her?

"I'll handle the transition, it'll be smooth."

"Ok, what about the press because you only had the job for a week, that's gonna seem..." his sentence trailed off and he realised something. Any other woman would have left him a long time ago. Many had, in fact. Apart from Jessica, Pepper was the only other woman to stand by him through thick and thin. She was more than just his PA, she was his best friend, and he...shit. He was in love with her.

"Well with you that's like dog years-" Pepper snapped.

"I know." He mumbled, leaning closer to her.

"I mean it's like the Presidency-" before she could finish her sentence, he closed the distance between them and kissed her. He loved her, and he knew she loved him. She had absolutely no qualms about telling him he was being an idiot. She made him happy and he was going to try his damndest to make her just as happy. She'd stayed with him for nearly eleven years, there was no way in hell he was going to lose her now.

They broke apart and Tony stared at her, eyebrows drawn together slightly.

"Weird?" he asked, unsure of himself.

"No, it wasn't weird." Pepper said, somewhat breathlessly.

"It was ok right?" he said with more confidence. "Run that by me again." He leaned in once more and brushed his lips across hers, his heart doing several different gymnastic flips as he did so.

Tony Stark didn't fall in love very often, but when he did, he fell hard.

_Fin.

* * *

_

So, that's that. I'm going to go watch 'Old Yeller' now for the first time. Wish me luck!


End file.
